It's been a "summer of extremes" around the world, the U.N. weather agency says, as heat waves, wildfires and heavy rains pummel continents – and sea level rise dims the future of low-lying Pacific islands.
Sea levels rose faster in the Southwest Pacific than in the rest of the world last year, the World Meteorological Organization reported on Friday. Meantime, WMO also said the summer of extremes continues: July was the hottest month ever recorded and the high-impact weather is continuing through August.
“This is the new normal and does not come as a surprise,” Alvaro Silva, a climate expert with WMO, told a Geneva press briefing.
“The frequency and intensity of many extremes, such as heatwaves and heavy precipitation, have increased in recent decades," he said. "There is high confidence that human-induced climate change from greenhouse emissions is the main driver."
Around Europe, moderate and severe heat warnings in the 30°-40° Celsius range were issued for the third week of August in nations such as Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Switzerland.
Morocco and Turkey reported new national records of 50.4° and 49.5°, respectively. Many parts of the Middle East suffered temperatures above 50°. Japan endured a prolonged heat wave that broke records, even as authorities warned of torrential rain and typhoon-related floods.
The extreme heat in Portugal and Spain, including the Canary Islands, fueled an extremely severe fire risk. Firefighters in the Canary Islands confronted the worst wildfire in decades as it burned out of control on the tourist island of Tenerife. The deadliest wildfires in modern U.S. history tore through the historic town of Lahaina on Hawaiia's popular tourist island of Maui.
More than 600 of Canada's 1,000 wildfires were out of control, making for a record-breaking season. Those included at least 265 in the Northern Territories near the Arctic Circle, where authorities issued an evacuation order for Yellowknife as the flames moved closer to the city of 20,000.
Southwest Pacific region at the 'forefront'
Sea level rise threatens the future of low lying islands in the Southwest Pacific region, where farming is particularly prone to climate-related disasters.
The report on the region was released at meeting of government ministers and meteorologists in Fiji aimed at strengthening climate and weather services in the Pacific.
“Our Pacific people are at the forefront of the impact of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution," said Sefanaia Nawadra, director-general of the South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), an intergovernmental organization based in Samoa.
"Our Pacific leaders have already declared a climate emergency, reaffirming that this is now the single greatest existential threat facing the Blue Pacific," he said.
The three-year-long La Niña provided temporarily cooling last year but the mean temperature was still 0.2°-0.3 ° higher than during the last strong La Niña in 2011. La Niña, which shifts weather patterns, is a natural, temporary cooling of part of the Pacific. El Niño does the opposite – it leads to occasional warming.
“The El Niño, which followed three years of La Niña conditions, is very likely to continue during the rest of the year," said WMO's Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
"This will have a big impact on the Southwest Pacific region," he said, "as it is frequently associated with higher temperatures, disruptive weather patterns and more marine heatwaves and coral bleaching."
